This strand of research focuses on the combination of pervasive computing with mixed reality:
An overview of some ongoing projects is given below.
Team: Dr Fotis Liarokapis, Dan Goldsmith, John Kemp.
Undergraduate Students: Garry Malone, Louis Macan
Environmental monitoring brings many challenges to wireless sensor networks: including the need to collect and process large volumes of data before presenting the information to the user in an easy to understand format. Research within the wireless sensor networks community has led to the development of new computing models ranging from distributed computing to large-scale pervasive computing environments. This rapid evolution of pervasive computing technologies has allowed the development of novel interfaces which are capable of interacting with sensory information originating from the environment with little or no manual intervention.
On the other hand, augmented reality (AR) allows for seamless integration of virtual and real information in real-time. Although a number of technologies are able to perform environmental monitoring, pervasive augmented reality is one of the strongest candidates.
To address some of the issues of environmental monitoring, this project aims to research into sense enabled augmented reality interfaces that will be capable of:
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To date, a generic environmental monitoring prototype has been developed called SensAR, that uses wireless sensor networks to gather temperature and audio data about the user’s surroundings in real-time. The architecture of SensAr consists of a sensor layer, a communication layer and a visualisation layer. In terms of operation several sound and temperature sensors are positioned at fixed locations within an indoor environment. The sensor readings are transferred over a WiFi link to a dedicated server and then to the client side, which is a lightweight handheld computer. SensAR displays the environmental information in an understandable format using a real-time handheld AR interface. Participants can visualise three-dimensional or textual representations of the sound and temperature information in a tangible manner through the use of a handheld device.
Publications
Goldsmith, D., Liarokapis, F., Malone, G., Kemp, J. Augmented Reality Environmental Monitoring using Wireless Sensor Networks, proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Information Visualisation (IV08), pages 539–544, London South Bank University, UK, 8-11 July, 2008. pdf
The main objective of this research is to display 3D representations of the audio data contained inside a room blended with 3D information. This work has been designed to test at least some aspects of the mixed reality presentation system, using easily available sensors and display devices. MR presentation of the sound field occurs within a 3D computer model of the room in which the sensors are located. It can take a variety of forms from a sound 'mist' to 'objects' representing the sound, which hang in space. Computer-vision registration is achieved using confidence levels of marker-based tracking. Finally, in terms of localisation, the sensors calculate the location of a sound before drawing the object in 3D space.
A demo video can be found here and for more information, contact: Dr. Fotis Liarokapis
Publications
Liarokapis, F., Newman, R., Mount, S., Goldsmith, D., Macan, L., Malone, G., Shuttleworth, J. Sense-Enabled Mixed Reality Museum Exhibitions, Proc. of the 8th International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Cultural Heritage (VAST '07), Eurographics, Brighton, UK, 26-30 November, 31-38, (2007). ISBN: 978-1-56881-403-2
The purpose of this research is to extend the work of the LOCUS project which aimed in exploring how mixed reality interfaces can be used for the presentation of information on mobile devices. In particular, emphasis is given in extending traditional location-based services (LBS) interfaces by adding a VR (bottom left image) and an AR interface (bottom right image). Moreover, this research aims in finding the most suitable interface for mobile information systems. This is likely to be user and task dependent and pervasive mixed reality interfaces offer promise in allowing mobile users to make associations between spatially referenced information and the physical world.
A demo video can be found here and for more information, contact: Dr. Fotis Liarokapis
Publications
Liarokapis, F., Conradi, E., User Interfaces for Mobile Navigation, Library Hi Tech, Special Issue on 3D Visualization, Emerald Press, 25(3): 352-365, (2007). ISSN: 0737-8831.
Mountain, D., Liarokapis, F., Mixed reality (MR) interfaces for mobile information systems, Aslib Proceedings, Special issue: UK library & information schools, Emerald Press, 59(4/5): 422-436, (2007). ISSN: 0001-253X.
Liarokapis, F., Brujic-Okretic, V., Papakonstantinou, S., Exploring Urban Environments using Virtual and Augmented Reality, Journal of Virtual Reality and Broadcasting, GRAPP 2006 Special Issue, Digital Peer Publishing, 3(5): 1-13, (2006). ISSN: 1860-2037.
Liarokapis, F., Mountain, D., Papakonstantinou, S., Brujic-Okretic, V., Raper, J., Mixed Reality For Exploring Urban Environments, Proc. of the 1st International Conference on Computer Graphics Theory and Applications (GRAPP 2006), Insticc Press, 25-28 Feb, Setubal, Portugal, 208-215, (2006). ISBN: 972-8865-39-2.
Computer games are continuously improving graphics capabilities and game-play but the market demands show that more compelling gaming applications are required. Pervasive gaming is an alternative solution to modern gaming, as demonstrated successfully by the Wii controller. This research deals with a number of issues related to pervasive gaming.
A demo video can be found here and for more information, contact: Dr. Fotis Liarokapis
Publications
Liarokapis, F., An exploration from virtual to augmented reality gaming, Simulation and Gaming, Symposium: Virtual Reality Simulation, SAGE Publications, December, 37(4): 507-533, (2006). ISSN: 1046-8781.
This research investigates formative and summative evaluation issues related to mobile mixed reality interfaces. Recent work concentrated on mobile mixed reality interfaces designed for geo-visualization of 3D realistic urban environments. The interface allows dynamic switching between three visualization domains: a virtual reality; an augmented reality and a mixed reality interface to get the best possible representation for visual exploration. Some of the techniques used in the geo-visualization interface the include expert-user evaluation, end user-evaluation. In addition, other methods that can be used in this framework include thinking aloud protocol, question asking protocol, co-discovery methods, observational evaluations, contextual inquiries, interviews; questionnaires, guidelines checklist, pluralistic walkthroughs, cognitive walkthroughs, heuristic evaluation and NASA taskload.
A demo video can be found here and for more information, contact: Dr. Fotis Liarokapis
Publications
Liarokapis, F., Evaluation of a Mobile MR Geovisualisation Interface, To appear in the 29th annual conference of the European Association for Computer Graphics (EUROGRAPHICS 2008), Eurographics, Crete, Greece, 14-18 April, (2008).